I had the pleasure of seeing Failure play at the Fillmore in Silver Spring this past June. Their sound was incredible! No surprise there, since Failure is so rad and Ken Andrews has become quite well-known for his producing skills since the band's 16-year hiatus.

Anyway, they sounded huge and I was ecstatic when Premier Guitar released a rig rundown of their gear from the current tour. At the core of their rig is the Fractal Audio Axe-Fx which I use as well and I'm always stoked when I see awesome artists using it.

I'm using Positive Grid's Bias and Jamup apps on my ipad for amplification. The goal of this video wasn't to feature them, but they are rad tools for guitar players so I thought I'd give you a head's up. If you like what you hear in the video, check out Positive Grid's site:

Here's episode two of Quick Tips. This week I focus on adding different levels of overdrive to your sound. This can help create a "spectrum" of tones. By having more choices, you can carve out a specific sound for the type of music you play. This is not comprehensive by any means - just an overview of this idea of "gain staging."

I decided to try something new. This is the first in a new series I'm calling Quick Tips. It's similar to my Quick Riffs videos. Instead of a riff, I briefly cover a guitar technique, effect, piece of gear, etc. Hopefully you enjoy. Let me know what you think!